The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is refashioning itself to be innovation friendly. It started appropriately by admitting that it had a problem: âa low risk tolerance for innovative products and services.â It then set out to remedy the problem by, among other things, setting up an innovation office and proposing a special purpose national bank charter for fintech firms. Thatâs all well and good, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Based on the terms that the OCC laid out in its recent draft document on âevaluating charter applications from financial technology…

President Trumpâs âskinnyâ budget was released last week and youâd think the world has already ended because it includes cuts to a number of agencies. Typically, a president proposes a comprehensive, detailed budget thousands of pages long. But thatâs a monumental task just weeks after assuming office, so new presidents present a smaller budget followed by the more detailed one later. Trumpâs âskinnyâ budget, though, is briefer than usual because it only deals with the small part of spending the Washington crowd refers to as âdiscretionaryâ spending. Before thinking that…

<p>The chances of a small business being invaded, of having computers, smartphones, tablets and even bank accounts hacked because of poor cybersecurity, are rapidly growing. And some of the very things small businesses are encouraged to do to make themselves more visible, like having blogs, can also make them more vulnerable.</p>